Monday, February 9, 2015

Magnus Carlsen Wins GRENKE Chess 2015

(ulasan Bahasa Indonesia di bawah)
The GRENKE Chess Classic 2015 was -almost not- won by Magnus Carlsen, after Arkadij Naitditsch continued to put obstacles to the world champion's path to champion. Playing after seven rounds, Magnus Carlsen drew against Etienne Bacrot put his point the same as Naiditsch, who also drew David Baramidze in this round. The GRENKE Chess Classic 2015 highest council in Baden-Baden then activated the tie-break law. Both players, Carlsen and Naiditsch, summoned for couple of extra blitz games, so that only one man standing in the last.

Two 10 minutes blitz games was equally won by both Carlsen and Naiditsch, then two 5 minutes bullet games was equally draw by them yet again. Luckily there is one more games, the holy Armageddon games to play. Carlsen get the white piece in opposite to Naiditsch with black, where he enjoy special draw-is-win spell. Alas, this is where the story end, Carlsen won the Armageddon game played in Sicilian defence thus claiming his second major chess tournament in 2015. To remind everyone, TATA Steel Chess 2015 is Carlsen's first trophy in 2015.

The other six players have different stories. Michael Adams is third-fourth place, winning the last games against Vishy Anand, and also David. Same as what happened in London 2014, Adams continued to show he can managed the big boy's tournament with respective result. Fabiano Caruana is third-fourth place, only won 'easy' game vs Levon Aronian, he is on his second 'average' tournament result in a row, after Tata Steel Chess 2015. Levon Aronian, also comes with 'average' result, but won one nice game vs Vishy Anand. Etienne Bacrot, undefeated and draw all his seven games. Vishy Anand, surprisingly bad result frankly, usually Vishy is a strong round robin tournament, but this event is not his best moment. David Baramidze in the last place, well, he is hundred more points below his closest competitor, so must said, it is predicted result.

Trivia:
-Grenke Chess Classic 2015 is yet another super tournament with absent of Russian players, something that familiar to post-2010s chess era.
-Grenke chess Classic 2015 participants all eight from different countries
- Magnus Carlsen won the title but according to Live Rating, he is lost -2.1 point.
- Fabiano Caruana joined the tournament as world number 2, when the tournament finished, he is down to number 3 due to his results here. Alexander Grischuk up to world number 2 without playing a game.

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Armageddon Round
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